Color Blindness on Wikipedia

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Colorblindness is a hereditary dysfunction where a person's retina has mutated or missing rod and cone cells, which are the color and brightness identifiers in your retina. There are 3 main types and 8 variations of colorblindness.

Monochromacy
Monochromacy is when a person's retina can only see color through one spectrum channel. This is also known as Total Colorblindness because a person's color vision is limited to only variations in brightness. Two variations of Monochromacy include Rod and Cone Monochromacy. Rod Monochromacy means there is a complete absence of Cone cells in the retina, causing an inability to discriminate colors. Cone means there are still Rod and Cone cells, but there is only one cone cell. A person can still see patterns, but cannot distinguish hues.

Dichromacy
Dichroamcy is when the retina needs two channels of spectrum to identify color, whereas a normal person needs three. There are 3 variations to Dichromacy, which are Protanopia, Deuteropia, and Tritonopia. Protanopia mean a missing long-wavelength cone, causing the red end of the spectrum to be les senitive to the person. Deuteropia mean a missing medium-wavelength cone, which causes less sensitivity in the green end of the color spectrum. Tritonopia is a lacking short-wavelength cone, affecting the person's blue area of the color spectrum.

Anomalous Trichromacy
Anomalous Trichromacy is when a person can see colors through three channels, but have mutated or missing cones. The color matches that they make differ from normal. The three variations are Protanomaly, Deuteranomaly, and Tritanamoaly. Protanomaly is when a long-wavelength is missing or a mutation is present. This is once again affecting the red end of the spectrum, which causes it to darken to an almost black. Deuteranomaly is the presence of a mutated medium-wavelength cone, which forces your sight to focus on the red end of the spectrum, causing green to be less sensitive to your eyesight. Tritananomaly is a mutated short-wavelength cone, causing the retina to focus on the green end of the spectrum. This is the rarest form of colorblindness there is.


Rod and Cone cells are little cells in your retina that are named for the shape of their outside membrane. These cells convert light energy to neurological signals that are sent to the brain, reconstructing what you saw and what it looks like. (i.e. brightness and color) Each cell has its own unique and important job.

Rod Cells
The Rod cells, which are the more important ones, respond to low levels of light at all wavelengths of the visible spectrum. They are the ones that depict the brightness of the object and send the signal to your brain. These are normally never missing as they are the main part of the eye.

Cone Cells
Cones are also important too, as they are responsible for your color vision. This make them the prime target in colorblindness and are almost always missing or mutated when a person is affected by colorblindness. They are separated into three different types, each a different wavelength. Short-wavelength cones are responsible for your ability to see blue pigmentation in objects. Medium-wavelength cones are made to see the green coloration in what you see. Long-wavelength cones are used to see the red pigment in objects.

Chromosomes are responsible for what kind of colorblindness you may get if they are infected. Below is a chart that shows a list of the chromosomes that are affected in the 8 variations of colorblindness.

Type
Chromosome
Deuteranomaly
X Chromosome
Deuteranopia
X Chromosome
Protanomaly
X Chromosome
Protanopia
X Chromosome
Tritanomaly
Chromosome 7
Tritanopia
Chromosome 7
Blue Cone Monochromacy
X Chromosome
Rod Monochromacy
Chromosome 2/8
Picture from www.colblindor.com